'We wanted to do something': Hundreds of Calgarians attend New Year's Eve rally supporting Ukraine

Members of Calgary’s Ukrainian community gathered for a demonstration on New Year’s Eve as the attacks in their home country approach their third calendar year with additional carnage. Roughly 200 gathered at Calgary’s Holodomor monument Sunday in what organizers called an “emergency rally” in light of an attack Ukrainian officials are calling the largest air strike on the country since Russia launched its full scale invasion in February 2022.

Ukrainian authorities have said Friday’s 18 hour nationwide aerial barrage killed at least 41 people — including 17 in the capital city of Kyiv — as Russia fired 158 missiles at communities across the Eastern European country. “They will write that they hit military bases or military warehouses, but what we see is that they hit maternity hospitals, they hit schools, they hit residential buildings,” said Anna Tselukhina, one of the organizers of the local rally.

“They keep killing peaceful Ukrainians, not even those on the frontline, but just people who just want to celebrate New Year’s, celebrate Christmas.” Demonstrations have occurred in the small green area under the 4th Avenue flyover along Memorial Drive almost every week since the current aggression began, part of a nearly decade long conflict between the two nations.

Roughly 40,000 people fleeing the war in Ukraine have settled in Alberta over the last two years. Tselukhina said despite the new year typically being a time for celebration, it was important for the Ukrainian diaspora locally to gather in the wake of the most recent attack. “We just couldn’t not do anything,” she said.

“It’s like something in my heart, and I believe that it was something in the hearts of all these people, that just didn’t let us just enjoy a peaceful country, just enjoy this holiday celebrations. We wanted to come, we wanted to do something.” Both sides of the conflict have increased their attacks through the final days of 2023; Ukraine retaliated Saturday with an attack on the Russian border city of Belgorod that killed at least 22 people, and Russia attacked Kyiv and Kharkiv again in the hours leading into Sunday.

Another participant at the rally, Anna Savchenko, said she still has several friends in Kyiv and other cities across the country who face threats to their homes and families daily. “They’re just living every day in stress because every day (Russians) can bomb,” she said. The Calgary branch of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress is continuing to call on Canada — and nations across the globe — to recognize Russia’s actions as state sponsored terrorism.

It’s also urging continued support for Ukraine from Western nations and bolstered sanctions against Russia and its allies. “I think all Ukrainians hope that the support from different countries will continue and, all together, we’ll be able to overcome this war,” said Tselukhina. X:.